Wendy Shalit - A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue

CRITICAL PRAISE FOR

A Return to Modesty

Ms. Shalit marshals impressive evidence from philosophers as well as the tabloids to make her case for a return to modestyas both a sexual ideal and a strategy for greater pleasure[a] serious yet bouncy study.

Ruth R. Wisse, The Wall Street Journal

A Return to Modesty provides one invaluable service. There is a growing body of scholarly research on young adulthood that may, in the aftermath of Shalits booming polemic, be more difficult to ignore.

Emily Eakin, The New York Times Book Review

The first book of its kind... to blaze down the center of the postfeminist battleground between left and right.

Norah Vincent, Salon

Intriguing... [Shalit] writes about... how not going through with something can leave a deeper imprint on your imagination than going through with it, and how we have lost the playfulness and mystery of old-fashioned courtship.

Katie Roiphe, Harpers Bazaar

[An] earnest and serious book.... A fascinating subject [brought] to our attention in a fresh way.

Suzanne Fields, The Washington Times

[An] important book that every thinking young woman (and her mother) should read.

Maggie Gallagher, New York Post

Brilliant...

Cassandra West, Chicago Tribune

Wendy Shalit makes a strong case that deserves respectful... attention.

Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

The new me was chaste and modest... a born-again virgin who went ice skating with her sweetheart and then home to bed. The new me was Wendy, not Ally.

Amy Sohn, New York Press

A remarkably mature consideration of the history of manners between men and women.... Modesty and sexual shyness are a womans way of telling the world that what she hides is worth waiting to see. That she is rare, not common.... Shalit gives voice to my gut feelings.

Susan Reimer, The Baltimore Sun

Shalit is a fiercely intelligent and resourceful critic.... We should all pay heed.

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Commonweal

[Shalit] writes well, has read widely, has a keen sense for the fault lines in an argument, and is willing to buck the prevailing tides. Although this is in some respects a young womans book written for other young women, I wonder if we ought not be recommending it to young men. They might learn from it some important lessons about masculine character and conduct in our culture.

Gilbert Meilaender, The Christian Century

I can scarcely do justice to this excellent book.... This is a book that should be read by parents and young people alikeyes, boys, too.

R. S. McCain, New York Press

I find I like Wendy Shalit very much, both as a writer and, even more, as a fierce defender of young womens right to establish boundaries of their own.

Ariel Swartley, L.A. Weekly

A powerful and witty book that registers all the changes in our social landscape in all their starkness while also illuminating many of the steps that brought us to where we are.... A Return to Modesty seeks to reclaim what has been forgotten: that sex is significant.... Shalit has seen deeply into female nature, and into the malaise of a generation.

Elizabeth Powers, Commentary

This book is a bombshell.... Her playful, engaging exploration of the richly nuanced concept of modesty is extensively researched and amply supported by evidence drawn from sources as diverse as Glamour and last millenniums Talmud.

Sarah E. Hinlicky, First Things

A heartfelt (and controversial) plea.... A daring book aimed at the core of contemporary gender theory.... It is audacious, and it should not be dismissed.

Kirkus Reviews

Shalit assails a culture in which scoring is a virtue, but acting like ladies and gentlemen is not. Old-fashioned? Perhaps. Persuasive? Absolutely.

Andrea Neal, The Indianapolis Star

When [Shalit] speaks of modesty, she talks about mystery, innocence and sexual reticence, about protecting romantic hope and vulnerability. Its a natural instinct, a lost ideaa virtue found in the Bible that has gone out of fashion, but, of late, [is] finding new adherents. She explains that modesty comes from a sense of self-respect and confidence, qualities she exudes.

Sandee Brawarsky, Jewish Week

What makes Wendy Shalits analysis so refreshing is that she examines and justifies the nature of sexual modesty through rational discourse, rather than relying solely on the increasingly remote influence of religion.

Catherine Muscat, The Dartmouth Review

In this slashing critique of the world of postmodern sexual morality, A Return to Modesty surveys a cultural landscape in which people often select automobiles with more passion than lovers.... Written with sophistication, wit, and compassion that never becomes preachy...

Morgan N. Knull, Campus

[Shalit is] outspoken, funny, very bright... because she is clever, unafraid, and outspoken, her voice is going to be heard for a long time...

Andrew M. Greeley, Florida Port St. Lucie News

In this book Wendy Shalit brilliantly demonstrates how our views of natural modesty have been perverted by ideology.... Her book is a tour de force everyone should read and reflect upon. It is a return to first-rate sociology without jargon, an examination of the values of the culture at the end of our century.

Edith Kurzweil, editor of Partisan Review and author of Freudians and Feminists

Wendy Shalits invocation of some old virtues is nothing less than a prescription for a new sexual revolution.

Gertrude Himmelfarb, author of Marriage and Morals Among the Victorians

Surveying the scene of contemporary sexual mores, Wendy Shalit has the courage to announce the emperor is naked. Written with style, passion, and plenty of wit, this volume will signal the beginning of a new trend, and make fashionable, once again, a more vocabulary of sex that has been lost to us.

Norman Lamm, president, Yeshiva University

Wendy Shalit has written a book for all of usfeminists, antifeminists, conservatives, and liberals. By reclaiming modesty, Shalit argues, we might reclaim not only an overlooked but essential cornerstone of a good and stable life, but also a source of merriment and joythe wellspring for a virtuous and secret eroticism that puts a twinkle in the eye, and shines rather than tarnishes the heart.

Robin West, professor of law, Georgetown University, and author of Caring for Justice

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TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER,
with love,
and a thank-you for raising me to speak out when necessary, never mind the trouble it stirs up

The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, yet they felt no shame.... When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was a desirable source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.

GENESIS 2:253:7